After all the talk about roasted potatoes, Docandie was inspired to bake two potatoes - one for her dinner last night and the other to chop up to make some nice roast beef hash for breakfast/brunch and also to use up some roast beef that would not last much longer - Aston got half...

Docandie referred the link to the potato roasters to a a friend who has two vegan food trucks that they take to sites where movies, commercials and TV shows are being produced (requires a contract with the production company). Another company has food trucks that supply non-vegan foods but hers is very popular with a lot of the entertainment people. She serves all kinds of salads, bean soups and stews, veggie burgers and etc., but has never thought about the baked potato enterprise. We spoke on the phone and she is very intrigued and is going to dig through some UK web sites to see what variations are on offer. She likes the idea of the roaster on the trailer as they could haul that behind one of the the food trucks (which are large units like a big motorhome). One truck already hauls a big generator on a trailer but both are equipped to haul trailers.

Chillicamper loves jacket spuds and sees plenty of those spud ovens at events around Hampshire. There always seems to be a queue for them as well

Chillicamper is currently checking to see if any mouse bait has been taken having discovered that a packet of his bestest chokkit biscuits had been nibbled by a mini rodent of some description . Chilli thinks that the offending mouse may have taken up residence whilst he was away for a few days in Manchester. There's no sign of a nest that Chilli can find and very few mouse poos, so Chilli is hoping that he hasn't been around long. He won't be around much longer anyway

Chillicamper had to spend a few hours this weekend helping Mrs Chillicamper scrub the kitchen and place all food in to solid plastic containers. Chillicamper cannot however find how the little git gained entry

Chillicamper should beware of said mouse going after his soap. Tony had this problem a few years back where bars of soap were nibbled and even dragged along the floor to a mouse-sized hole in the bath panel.

Tony is ashamed to add that the mouse nearly made a clean getaway (sorry).

Janet taps on the door, slowly opens it, shuffles in and mutters 'Good morning all'. She has suddenly discovered that she has an hour on her hands as her daughter has decided to take a later train back to University this morning and Janet was all geared up to leave at 9 am for the 10 o'clock choochoo. Janet was wondering if her friends would be interested in the new skill she acquired yesterday.......that of sweeping chimneys! When she had attempted to contact the man who usually took care of that sort of thing, she discovered that he had apparently left the area (if not the planet) and she was in a right two and eight for a while trying to find a chimney sweep who did not have to travel 25 miles for 20 minutes work whilst charging an arm and at least half a leg for making a mess in her living room. Then the solution dawned and a good friend of Janet's was able to introduce her to another friend who owns a set of chimney brushes. The brushes were collected and, armed with the direst of warnings to ALWAYS TURN THE BRUSHES CLOCKWISE and NEVER TURN THEM ANTICLOCKWISE (that would be widdershins wouldn't it? Widdershins is BAD but only because the brush gets confused if it's turned back on itself and gets stuck ) she trotted off home to do the deed! It was a doddle and Janet now wonders if this could be a little sideline if she could find her own set of brushes. Apparently it's not done nowadays to keep a small child and send it up the chimney to release blockages Janet also wonders if the nice people who loaned her the brushes like their cakes fruity or chocky

Tony enjoyed Janet's chimney sweeping tale. Tony's dad used to sweep chimneys as a sideline and Tony sometimes got to go with him to assist. Not urning the brushes is, presumably so that you don't unscrew the brush off the canes and end up with it stuck up the chimney not attached to the cane. Tony's dad had an old sheet with a shirt sleeve sewed onto it. The sheet was draped over the mantelpiece and the canes were fed up through the sleeve. This meant that less soot got were it was not wanted.

Chimney sweeping has the added advantage that sweeps get to kiss brides . . . although this aspect of the job may not interest Janet so much.

But of course The brushes would get unscrewed if turned anti-clockwise! Janet employed a version of the old sheet arrangement as she had one already with a large hole in it and stuck Duck Tape around the hole until it was just big enough to feed the cane of the brush through. That was the only tricksy part of the whole job, doing an impression of an old photographer with a sheet over their head whilst trying to push the brush up the chimney at the same time as feeding the cane through the sheet Janet muses that young folks don't seem to have fun like that these days

Janet would kiss brides (or bridegrooms) if the money was right!

just for the record Janet thinks Tony's mouse joke was one of his worst yet

Will is sure that is exactly what would happen to him too. Fortunately the chances of Mrs Will allowing Will anywhere near a sweep's brush are nil.

Also Will and Mrs Will are very happy with their chimney sweep, apart from his regrettable choice of "hold the line" music when you ring him up (yes, I'm afraid it's Dick Van Dyke singing "Chim-chimmeny Chim-chim-cheree" ).

Will also has a feeling that sweeps are highly organised on this side of the Channel, so that if you tried to sweep your own chimney, the Sweeps' Guild would be around to break your legs. :

Will of Lancre wrote:Also Will and Mrs Will are very happy with their chimney sweep, apart from his regrettable choice of "hold the line" music when you ring him up (yes, I'm afraid it's Dick Van Dyke singing "Chim-chimmeny Chim-chim-cheree" ).

Aunty should probably not admit that she thinks that is very funny and would probably be endlessly calling Will's chimney sweep just to listen to the hold music

Janet is basking in the glow of her success and the warmth of a nice comfy fire but she now has one eye open for the Sweeps' Guild and wonders whether it is preferable to have her legs broken or just the brushes......which, of course are only on loan and do not belong to her tiptoes outside and closes the door almost silently

Bonnie thanks Janet for bringing fireplace safety to her attention. Bonnie and MrE will be moving into a new apartment in a couple of weeks that has a fireplace. Now she has to add more questions to her list when they do the official initial walk through on Saturday. She and MrE have been very busy bunnies the last few weeks finding a new place and now it is mostly down to the packing, moving and cleaning. And then there is the culling of things really not needed and finding a clear day for a yardsale. Okay, this is starting to give her a headache so she is just going to go have a glass of wine and get lost reading Dodger, which she just picked up from the library.

Jo of the Gates is intrigued by all this third person business, and would like to try it for herself, but she feels a bit silly. She realizes this thread has been going on for quite a while, and perhaps all these third persons might have felt silly at their first attempt as well. So Jo shyly looks around, smiles, and expresses her hope that everyone's week is going well. And with that having been said, she returns to the Gates to lurk some more, feeling that her foray into the Third Person Thread has been, if not life-changing, at least something to mention in her diary.

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